KARACHI - The process of reconciliation
with the Taliban continues on both sides of the
border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. A Former
top Taliban commander and present member of the
Afghan Parliament, Mullah Abdus Salam Rocketti,
and the former Taliban ambassador in Pakistan,
Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, are two key figures who
have been holding talks with Taliban elders in
southwestern Afghanistan for a political

settlement at the behest of
Western coalition forces.

On the Pakistani
side, the leader of the opposition in Parliament,
Maulana Fazlur Rahman, recently traveled to
Quetta, Balochistan province, to meet with local
Taliban commanders under Mullah Mansoor (brother
of slain Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah), and
apparently Rahman made a major breakthrough.

Asia Times Online contacts in Quetta
confirm that Rahman held talks with
representatives of Mullah Mansoor, and they
promised to pass on Rahman's message for approval.
In essence, this calls for holding small
jirgas (councils) with the Taliban and
related parties, such as tribal elders, at various
sites in Pakistan and Afghanistan at which Rahman
would act as mediator. Rahman's role has already
been approved by the administration of President
Hamid Karzai in Kabul, as well as by the Western
coalition. All that is needed now is the Taliban's
approval.

The significance of the small
jirgas is that they will involve the
Taliban, unlike the recent peace jirga in
Kabul, which the Taliban boycotted.

"If
there is a positive response from the Taliban, it
could mean a ceasefire in the near future, at
least in Kandahar and Helmand [provinces in
southeastern Afghanistan]. Once this process goes
on smoothly, it would guarantee regional peace," a
senior Pakistani official told Asia Times Online
on condition of anonymity.

The main player
in the game is Pakistan, which is also seen as a
vital corridor for Asian energy supplies once
Central Asian oil and gas reserves secure a
trouble-free route through Afghanistan.

Pakistan's leadership unanimously agrees
that a peace deal with the Taliban is the only
solution to the region's unrest. President General
Pervez Musharraf stated as much during the peace
jirga involving hundreds of representatives
from both Afghanistan and Pakistan. It remains for
Washington to commit fully to a permanent policy
for a political settlement.

An official of
a Kabul-based European body that has had a major
role in facilitating the talks between the Taliban
and coalition forces confirmed to Asia Times
Online, on condition of anonymity, that high-level
talks between Taliban commanders and coalition
forces through Rocketti and Zaeef had taken place
in an attempt to find a broader political
settlement.

Indeed, it was these talks
that paved the way for the dialogue in Quetta as
guarantees were given for the safety of the
Taliban in Quetta.

Should a ceasefire
emerge, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan are
expected to meet to sign a security contract with
regard to an oil and gas pipeline project worth
US$10 billion that will run from Turkmenistan via
Afghanistan to Pakistan, the TAP, and possibly on
to India. International Oil Co of the US recently
won the contract from Pakistan to construct the
2,200-kilometer pipeline over the next three
years.

The pipeline will run through
Kandahar and on to Pakistan's Gwadar Port. The
US-backed project is aimed to outflank Russia and
Iran in the regional energy game. Iran, Pakistan
and India are trying to get a pipeline project off
the ground linking the three countries. Washington
opposes this initiative, and once TAP becomes
operational it will severely curtail this venture.

This is not the first time the Taliban
have entered dialogue with the Western coalition.
Asia Times Online reported on June 14, 2003 (US turns to the Taliban),
the first direct talks between Pakistani and US
intelligence and the Taliban. Recent reports in
the German press claim that the Taliban and German
intelligence met in 2005 in Germany, while British
officials certainly met with the Taliban in
Helmand last year.

However, none of these
initiatives was able to achieve sustainable
results. The main stumbling blocks were
Washington's tough line on the Taliban, while that
group wanted all or nothing, that is, the complete
withdrawal of foreign troops and the handover of
power to them - a "complete victory".

In
the United States' case, it is obsessed with
removing Taliban leader Mullah Omar before the
group can be given any political role. The Taliban
have always dismissed this out of hand. As a
result, Washington has terminated the dialogue and
proceeded with the military option.

Retired Lieutenant0General Asad Durrani,
former director general of Pakistan's
Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Military
Intelligence, told Asia Times Online,
"Conventional wisdom suggests a dialogue process,
even during a conflict. We have